Two Kenyan police killed in attack in northeast county

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Two Kenyan police officers were killed and another injured on Thursday in an attack on a local administrator's office in a northeast county bordering with Somalia, the interior ministry said.

Twelve vehicles were also burned in the raid on an Assistant County Commissioner's office in Mandera East Sub County, which the ministry blamed on "criminals" without elaborating further.

The attack in Mandera County followed a grenade blast late on Wednesday that killed one person in another northeastern town, just days after an assault on a Nairobi shopping mall by Islamist militants that killed at least 72 people including foreigners.

Saturday's attack on the Westgate mall in the Kenyan capital was claimed by the Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab, which has also carried out sporadic attacks in the arid northeast border region. The area is also prone to banditry and low-key clan clashes by pastoralist communities.